Empowering Women for Inclusive and Sustainable Development and Progress

Promoting Economic Skills and Harnessing Local Value Chains

Skilling Rural Youth to Create Employable and Productive Workforce

Adopting Smart Agricultural Practices to Increase Farmers' Income

Improving School Infrastructure and Learning Outcomes of Children in Rural Areas and Slums

Skilling and Empowering Women to give them their rightful place in the Society

Providing Access to Basic Amenities like Water and Sanitation in Needy Areas

AROH Foundation

AROH Foundation is a leading national-level Indian NGO working across the country for the past two decades to empower the poor and underprivileged communities by building upon their human, natural and capital resources in order to create productive forces and sustainable ecosystems.

Improving Natural Resources

Water, Health and Sanitation

Access to water, health and sanitation facilities are fundamental to human existence. AROH is providing need-based facilities and infrastructure to improve access to water, health and sanitation to poor communities across India.

Harnessing Renewable Energy

Our villages are suffering inadequate power supply and lack basic amenities like water and electricity. AROH ventures to provide cost effective solar powered lights and water pumps to improve the lives of people.

Dare to Dream and make them true

Kavita

Singing new “Kavita” of learning

Mrs Idamon Swer

Awarded as “Outstanding Farmer”

Rekha

Livelihood from mushroom cultivation

Featured Projects

Padho Aur Badho / RISE

Despite strides in education, our nation struggles to provide quality education which results in poor learning outcomes for a large percentage of children. RISE is for Remedial Innovation in School Education and aims to impart extra lessons to students to improve their learning outcomes.

Holistic Rural Development Program – Uttar Pradesh

Firozabad district in Uttar Pradesh has been engaged in glass bangle making since centuries. AROH Foundation had adopted one such unit in village Dikhtoli to improvise in its infrastructural setups and improvise on quality through skill workshops by experts. Neha, 20 years was working in the unit in her spare time to generate income...

Holistic Rural Development Program – Chhattisgarh

The project aims towards holistic rural development in 24 villages in 3 blocks of Chhattisgarh. Multi-sectoral initiatives are planned with a participatory approach to bring sustainable transformation in the lives of people living in villages.

Holistic Rural Development Program – Meghalaya

Empowering tribals of East Khasi Hills. The project takes on multiple initiatives to remove the barriers which inhibit the progress in the area. Rural Enterprises, Agriculture, Solar Water Pumps and Lighting, Food Processing, etc are some of the initiatives under the project.

Events and Activities

Pavitra GuptaChhattisgarh

“AROH has helped me to utilize my resources the best possible way. Experts and field team not only ensure training towards new crops, technology and methods but also helps throughout in implementation. Kharif demonstration in my field has given commendable profits. “ says Pavitra gupta,Bijna, Chhattisgarh

Kavita Firozabad, UP

Singing new “Kavita” of learning

Kavita has a family of six members and they belong to Lucknow. Kavita’s father has been living in Delhi since 8 years. In Delhi, his father works as a vegetable vendor but now he has started working as a labour. Kavita’s mother is a housewife. Her father could somehow was arranging fees for school for his all four children but couldn’t afford the tuition fees. Apparently someone told Kavita’s mother about the rise centre and told her that the studies are for free. So the other day Kavita’s mother come to the rise centre to seek information and after that decided to send her children to RISE centres. The parents are quite happy that children are doing well in centre. The children are quite interactive, obedient and punctual about the timings. Kavita is a hardworking girl. It turns out all she needed was a little extra help in understanding class subjects she had not understood and the teachers in her school had no time to explain to her. The exposure visits and interactive activities in RISE brought out the innate curiosity and habit of learning she had within her. She enthusiastically participates in everything now. She completes her homework punctually, and asks the tutors her queries and problems. She loves going on Exposure Visits and comes back full of stories and facts. Kavita is doing well also because she can now study at home. After participating in the parents meeting and workshops, her parents understand the benefits of education which they did not earlier because they are not literate themselves. Now her parents make sure she has enough free time from chores to do her homework and study her lessons.

Very importantly Kavita’s parents also feel like they are part of their daughter's life and progress and are proud of their daughter's accomplishments and say, “ Kavita is singing new “kavita” of learning in her life and we thank RISE for this.”

Mrs Idamon Swer awarded as “Outstanding Farmer” by government of Meghalaya

Mrs Idamon Swer, Umtyngngar, Laitkroh is one of our star beneficiary of skill development and livelihood interventions being executed under Holistic Rural Development Project in the interior most villages of Meghalaya. Under the intervention, Mrs Swer was trained for demand driven business of poultry. Trained by experts of AROH for not only rearing of chicks, but also for market linkages and maintaining balance sheet, Mrs Swer is now earning around Rs 50,000 p.a. from her poultry intervention. For her ease, she was also provided by solar mini light, so that during dark, she can keep an eye on her chicks. For her exceptional business initiative, she was also awarded OUTSTANDING FARMER from A.H. & Veterinary Department, Sohra Sub Division, Shora, Meghalaya.

In her own words, she says, “it all started with baby steps, I was determined to use the opportunity given my AROH Foundation, when they provided me with 40 chicks & solar light. Along with expert’s training and my hard work, this has become one of the major sources of income for me. Thanks to team AROH for all support, now I intend to grow more as an entrepreneur.”

Rekha Livelihood from mushroom cultivation

Ms Rekha, 45 years,member of Ganga SHG, Behatrai village,Bilaspur district says, “ it’s been an year since we are doing mushroom cultivation in the village and we have seen that with very minimal labour and input cost, this business is giving us higher profits. Team from AROH has been guiding us at every step from procurement, to cultivation to finally selling it. We have developed an SHG called Ganga which reuses the money generated for the betterment of women. We as women now feel secure and confident about life now.”

“The value of human dignity, equality and equity cannot be understated. Human life is born not merely to survive, but to thrive! Empowering people is the key to their progress and prosperity.”

Dr Neelam Gupta
Founder President & CEO

“India lives in villages” were the golden words of Mahatma Gandhi many decades ago. Ironically after almost 50 years the data does not seem to disagree. Today a majority of the Indian population still live in the villages. Though there is substantial migration from rural to urban areas in India, still almost 68% of India continues to live in rural areas.

Today, after almost 7 decades of independence, the villages take a backseat in almost every aspect of socio-economic analysis. We have created an economy of rich cities and poor villages, surging urban areas and decaying rural areas.

A look at the Socio-Economic Census (2011) data regarding rural livelihood and employment is scary. Almost three fourths of the rural households live with a monthly income of less than Rs 5000. More than half the rural households do not own land and more than half of them are casual labor.

Inequality persists in all spheres, including the all-pervasive gender inequality. Despite high rates of economic growth, inequality is particularly apparent among marginalized groups. Women participate in employment and decision making much less, than men. This disparity is not likely to be eliminated soon. India’s poor performance on women’s empowerment and gender equality is reﬂected in many indicators, for the past 15 years, AROH has been working towards skill development and empowerment of youth and women, especially from rural backgrounds. In the year 2016-17, in addition to skills and enterprises, the Foundation has been working on an integrated approach for rural development. Selected villages are provided all round help and support to bring improvement to their socio economic and environmental status.

The Foundation strives to eliminate gender inequality through its various focused programs leading to women’s empowerment and capacity building. The Foundation has gained rich experience in running women oriented skill development programs, especially for rural women, thereby empowering them for taking up gainful engagement, either through job placement or enterprise.

The pioneering programs designed by AROH Foundation have been much appreciated by the stakeholders for their innovative approach and sustainability. We have received ﬁnancial support from various prestigious corporates and public sector organizations, which has made our journey possible.

We shall continue to empower our people and strengthen our resources to create a better tomorrow for all those marginalized communities who have been left out from the sphere of development.